Xerox and Fujifilm battle update
- Nikkei Asian newspaper interviewed Shigetaka Komori, CEO of Fujifilm; "Fujifilm can grow without the acquisition (of Xerox), which does not mean we will lose our future."
o is continuing its attempts to acquire Xerox, but has denied it will make any compromise, even if it fails in the bid.
o "We would not go as far as to raise our terms of acquisition, set in January, to realize the deal."
o "It will be better if we can buy Xerox", but the acquisition "is not an indispensable strategy."
o "Fujifilm can grow without the acquisition, which does not mean we will lose our future," .
o "But I make it clear that we will offer no more terms than what we have done. The terms we offered in January are the ceiling,"
o Xerox has no sales network in Asia, while Fujifilm has sold office equipment in the U.S. and Europe as it has sales routes there gained from selling other products, Komori said
o “They (Xerox) will be in trouble if they review the partnership."
- Fujifilm has also filed a $1 billion breach-of-contract lawsuit against Xerox for terminating the $6.1 billion acquisition deal.
- Xerox stakeholders failed to speak up in favor of an acquisition by Fujifilm at a general meeting during past week
o Fujifilm's focus now shifts to appealing an injunction placed on the deal in April by a U.S. court
o Hearings on the appeal are set to begin in September.
o The sole shareholder who spoke up mentioned the acquisition, but confined his comments to issues like corporate governance and the disappointing performance of Xerox stock.
o If the freeze is lifted, Fujifilm could seek legal measures to have Xerox stick to the contract.
Xerox PPS products receive awards
- The Xerox Iridesse production color laser system and its XMPie Circle PersonalEffect Edition variable data software each won InterTech Technology Awards.
- The awards – managed by the largest graphic arts trade association, Printing Industries of America (PIA)
- Iridesse is the only digital six station press that combines four-color printing with two specialty gold, silver or clear dry inks in a single printing pass
August 5th 2018
- XMPis Circle is omnichannel communications solution that brings together individualized content and a marketing automation workflow
Xerox new marketing resources for dealers
- marketing assets for Xerox dealers to build their operations by promoting Xerox’s MPS programs and MFPs
- includes self-serve, multi-piece demand generation campaigns, HTML emails and newsletters, co-marketing brochures, videos, eBooks, infographics and proposals
- curated and drafted posts are provided for channel partners to share on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
- Redesigned partner badges highlight the relationship between partners and Xerox via window slicks and on apparel, collateral and signage.
- Partner Event Marketing Toolkit offers:
o essentials needed for hosting on-site customer events
o With materials designed to help partners grow their business by promoting Xerox’s services and technology, the kit includes co-branded assets such as invitation templates, presentations, social media content and videos.
- Marketing materials focus on security, mobility, automation, cost management and employee productivity.
HP buys huge dealer in Europe
- HP Inc. announced it’s acquiring Apogee Corporation, headquartered in London, England
- Purchase price reportedly around $500 million
- is Europe’s largest independent provider of print, outsourced services, and document and process technology
- Apogee was a dealer for Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung Ricoh, Xerox, Kyocera, and Konica Minolta (but now most likely will only sell HP products)
- Enrique Lores, president of HP Imaging and Print, commented: “The Apogee acquisition extends HP’s print leadership by boldly leveraging the industry shift to contractual sales as we aggressively pursue the A3 office market. We’re augmenting our go-to-market and enhancing our ability to deliver the services necessary to win in the profitable contractual market. This deal complements our broader channel strategy and HP remains committed to building our business through our best-in-class partner program.”
- has 1,000 employees and $300 million in annual revenue
HP Inc. launches bounty to hack its MFPs
- launched “Bug-Bounty” vulnerability for its printers and MFPs
- hackers who spot vulnerabilities in its HP printers and copier/MFPs may receive rewards of up to $10,000
- HP selected Bugcrowd, a provider of crowd-sourced offensive security, to manage the program
- According to Bugcrowd’s recent report, the top emerging attackers are focused on endpoint devices such as printers, and the total print vulnerabilities across the industry have increased 21% during the past year.
HP Inc. fix for MFP/printer security issue
- Issued firmware patches to fix vulnerabilities in 225 different models of inkjet printers and MFPs, including some PageWide, DesignJet, OfficeJet, DeskJet and Envy models
- Supposedly fixes a flaw that can be exploited by printing a file that triggers a stack or static buffer overflow
- This would allow a hacker to execute a malicious code on the targeted MFP or printer
HP/Samsung wins MPS contracts
- Award from State Hospital Clinic of Germany with 28 locations
o monthly print volume of more than one million pages
o included A3 and A4 devices
- award from Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam
o included 700 MFPs
o locations in 66 provinces
Ricoh provides more details on its earnings
- total sales for Q1 of 2018 down 0.3% to 490.9 billion yen ($4.4 billion)
- profits decreased by 14% to 9.2 billion yen
- comprehensive income decreased by 70.7%
- sales generated by its Office Printing segment and the Commercial Printing segment declined compared to the first quarter a year ago.
o Office Printing division sales down 3.8% to 273.7 billion
8% decrease in placements of A3 MFPs
MFP revenue down 11%
Sales in the U.S. down 6.8%
- Sales for Office Services division increased 9.7% 108 billion yen ($972.5 million)
o Operating profit increased to 2.2 billion yen
- Sales for Commercial Printing segment decreased by 7.2% to 42.4 billion yen
o operating profit decreased by 31.1% to 4.9 billion yen
o hardware revenue down 21%
- For its current fiscal year that will end on March 31, 2019, forecasting 2,040 billion yen in sales, down 1.1%
Epson reports earnings
- results for the first quarter of fiscal 2018.
- total revenue up 2.2% to 260.46 billion yen ($2.4 billion)
- profit down 12.7% to 14,624 million yen ($132.4 million)
- Printing Solutions division profits tumbled nearly 20%
o shrinking revenue from the sale of replacement ink
o total revenue up 0.4% to 166.6 billion yen ($1.5 billion)
o large-format inkjet printer revenue was flat
o inkjets accounted for 82% of revenue
o high-capacity ink tank printers have now reached 30 million units and that in 2018 alone the company expects to sell 9.5 million units
high-capacity ink tank printers will account for 55% of total inkjet printer sales
o profit shrank by 19% to 17.9 billion yen ($162.0 million)
o margin fell from 13.3% in Q1 2017 to 10.8% in Q1 2018.
Hon Hai Precision reports Sharp earnings
- Sharp (owned by Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan, aka Foxconn) reported its last quarter earnings
- Total net sales from all division up 5.4% to 533 billion yen
- Operating profit up 45% to 24 billion yen
- Smart Business Solutions group, which includes copier/MFPs, digital signage, and professional displays, total sales up 8.9% to 78.6 billion yen
o Operating profit up 20.7% to 3.6 billion yen
Dealer acquisitions update
- Marco, headquartered in St. Cloud, Minnesota, announced it has acquired Ticomix
o Ticomix is headquartered in Rockford, Illinois and is a managed IT services firm
o Total 21 employees serving clients from Marco’s current office in Rockford, IL and Ticomix’s office in Milwaukee, WI.
- Standley Systems, headquartered in Chickasha, Oklahoma announced it has acquired Enid Typewriter Co. of Oklahoma
o Standley now has offices in all four quadrants of Oklahoma, and has increased to 152 full-time staff members statewide.
o Dealer for Savin, HP and Kyocera
EFI looking for new CEO
- Electronics For Imaging, Inc. announced today that its longtime CEO, Guy Gecht, has informed the Company’s Board of Directors that he intends to step down
- retained Spencer Stuart, a leading global executive search firm, to assist in search
- Guy served EFI for 19 years as CEO and transformed EFI from a single product line (Fiery servers) and OEM business model to a diverse, worldwide leader driving the transition from analog to on-demand digital imaging
o led the expansion into Productivity Software and Industrial Inkjet, which drove EFI’s rapid growth to over $1 billion in annual revenues
Dealer changes its name
- All Copy Products, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, announced the launch of a new corporate name, brand identity, and tagline.
- "Today’s announcement of updating our brand and logo as ACP is the culmination of months of strategic work to define our future vision, products, and services. We look forward to a bright future as a leading office technology company.”
- New tagline of “Complete Office Technology Solutions”
- Also has division named Verticomm, which provides managed IT services
- “We are excited to rebrand All Copy Products into ACP, a complete office technology company,” said Brad Knepper, Owner & CEO of ACP.
- Also building a new corporate headquarters in downtown Denver
- ACP also has locations in:
o Colorado Springs, CO
o Boulder, CO
o Fort Collins, CO
o Glenwood Springs, CO
o Grand Junction, CO
o Cheyenne, WY
o Tempe, AZ 85284
o Overland Park, KS
Canon awards its top dealer in the U.S.
- The Gordon Flesch Company, headquartered in New Berlin, Wisconsin, won the “Top Dollar Volume Award” for 2017 from Canon
- Family-owned for 62 years
- Became Canon dealer in 1980
- has over 150 Canon-certified service engineers on staff
- locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio
Survey of workers and their computers
- survey of office workers conducted by Acucue, a contact lens manufacturer
- average office worker spends nearly 1,700 hours in front of a computer screen over the course of a year
- spend about 6.5 hours a day sitting in front of their computer
- 37% have to squint regularly to see the text on their computer screen
- 37% complain of regular headaches from gazing into a monitor for so long
- 25% move the screen closer to their faces in order to see it better.
- 53% need to take breaks and look away from screen to restore their eyesight
o 48% suffer from eye dryness or soreness
Toshiba launches new label system
- Launched new print and apply labeling system
- developed in collaboration with Panther Industries
- combines Toshiba’s B-EX4T1 and B-EX4T2 thermal barcode printers with Panther Industries’ Shadow automated labeling product
- to be marketed to supply chain and logistics applications.
- integrates with scale heads, barcode scanners, warehouse management systems and enterprise resource planning systems
- option to install the print and apply system on a tabletop or a stand adjacent to a conveyor for top and side labeling.
- Uses ink ribbon with 800 meter capacity
- base MSRP of $8,841